OCTOBER 16, 2020 — VoteRiders helps people not only get the ID that they need for voting but also so they can live their lives. Because you need ID for everything: you need it for housing, you need it for jobs, you need it for driving.
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Published in The Weekly Challenger
Written by J.A. Jones
VoteRiders Tampa Bay’s Karen Sherman said that after the last general election, she and colleague Joe Guido chose to start the local chapter in February 2020.
“After the 2016 election, I realized how much voter suppression was centering around requiring IDs for people to vote,” explained Sherman, “and how difficult it can be for a person to get an ID. I thought that’s where I want to put my focus.”
Sherman and Guido worked on another voter ID initiative and drew on previous know-how and partnerships after discovering that VoterRiders didn’t have a local chapter. They called the Florida office and received support from the Florida Voter ID Coalition Coordinator Jazlyn Gallego.
Gallego shared, “Volunteers like Joe and Karen are essential; involving the community in this way is essential to the development of VoteRiders. Our Tampa Volunteer team, led by Karen and Joe, has successfully built partnerships with local community organizations; they have assisted over 100 individuals in the Tampa Bay region this year alone. We could not have built a strong presence in Tampa Bay without them.”
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